WRC
SNIPPETS
n Organisers of Rally GB, final round of
the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship,
have announced that spectators will be
banned from watching the Power Stage,
the televised final stage of the event,
unless they have purchased a spectating
ticket, value £99.
n It is reported this will only be
available on a first-come, first-served
basis and subject to available space in the
dedicated car park. This ticket, described
as the “best value for money”, offers the
chance to appear on television, allows
access to other stages, comes with an
exclusive 10 percent discount on official
merchandise – and purchasers will have
a promotional air freshener supplied!
The communique also announces that
live coverage of the Power Stage will be
available for stay-at-home fans on ESPN,
but not on a free-to-view station. The
Power Stage will be run deep in the Epynt
Ranges north of Brecon.
n Entries for Rally Australia, have closed
with 31crews, 27 of which were FIA
Priority drivers and only seven Australian
crews. In addition there is one entry from
a New Zealand driver, Hayden Paddon.
There are to be 13 World Rally Cars and
14 entries in the PCWRC, including two
Australian Guest drivers. Top Australian
entry is for Academy drivers Brendan
Reeves who for this event will take over
the PCWRC entry of the Anders Grondal
team, but absent is the new FIA Pacific
Cup champion Chris Atkinson. None
of the top current Australian national
championship drivers is taking part on
the WRC event but some will compete in
a national level event which will run on
Days 1 and 2. Also absent from the event
will be Mads Ostberg.. His place in the
Stobart championship team for this event
is taken over by Evgeniy Novikov.
n Ukraine President Yevgeny
Czerwonienko is reported to claim that
the Carpathian mountain region has
everything necessary to organise a round
of the FIA’s world championship. He was
speaking at the Alexandrov Rally based
at Kosiv, Western Ukraine, close to the
Romanian border. The event is dedicated
to the memory of the late Andrey
Alexandrov, who died four years ago on
the Sliven Rally in Bulgaria. Earlier this
year Ukraine hosted a round of the IRC
series at Yalta in the south of the country.
Urgent talks are being held next
week at the FIA to analyse
the performance capability of
Group R4 cars, to bring this more in
line with the performance of 2-litre
normally aspirated S2000 cars, with
which R4 cars are matched in their
class.
While recent rallies indicate that R4
cars are often more than a half second
a kilometre faster than the old Class N4
version of the same car, this is still some
way short compared with S2000 cars.
The background to these talks is the
fight to keep Mitsubishi Lancer and
Subaru Impreza cars in a competitive
position in international rally sport, and
not suffer from an officially anticipated
decline of these traditional turbo four-
wheel drive cars. The proposed new
Class R4T cars (the so-called ‘poor man’s
S2000’) which are essentially to be four-
wheel drive versions of the front-wheel
drive R3T cars and enthusiastically
supported by Citroen and Peugeot, are
seen as another threat to Group N.
Only Citroen and Peugeot have
homologated R3T cars with full 1.6 litre
engines. Mitsubishi Ralliart chief Mario
Stagni says:
“Mitsubishi is against the introduction
of the new category. We prepared a kit
for the new R4 with the aim to let the
cars survive. The hope was to maintain
stability in the rules for some years”.
A spokesman representing Subaru
said “R4T cars will be a threat if they are
faster. It all depends on the details of the
rules being discussed.”
The FIA is meanwhile also pondering
the viability of New Generation 1.6
turbo S2000 cars. Although these cars
were expected to be the foundation of
second-level regional competition, the
cost of running these cars is very similar
to running World Rally Cars. So far these
cars are still banned from FIA’s regional
rallies and the IRC.
Mitsubishi and Subaru
fight for Group N survival